Abu Dhabi bourse denies Aldar, Sorouh share trade inquiry

The Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange has denied reports it started an investigation into suspicious trading pattern linked to the announcement of a state-backed merger between Aldar Properties and Sorouh Real Estate, it said on Tuesday.

“The exchange does not perform any investigations unless it was highly confident that trading laws have been violated, which did not happen in the case of Aldar and Sorouh share trading,” the bourse’s chief executive Rashed Al Baloushi said in a statement.

The National newspaper earlier on Tuesday quoted Abdullah Salem al-Naimi, manager of market surveillance and market operations at the ADX, saying the exchange began investigating after both companies showed identical share movements on the day before and after the merger announcement.

The two stocks rose 8 percent to 1.24 dirhams ($0.34) each on Sunday ahead of an announcement they were in merger talks to create a company with $15 billion in assets.

Both jumped again on Monday by 9.8 percent to 1.34 dirhams. ($1 = 3.6730 UAE dirhams) (Reporting by Nadia Saleem; Editing by David French)